


who jumped off the brooklyn bridge (this actually happened) and walked away unknown

by Wolvesandwerewolves



Series: I’m With You in Rockland [9]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Casual talks of killing dad, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia/Schizoaffective Disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25930672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolvesandwerewolves/pseuds/Wolvesandwerewolves
Summary: Vanya and Diego sit in the hospital waiting room together. She can’t stop thinking about what Klaus said before he—before he died.
Relationships: Vanya Hargreeves & Diego Hargreeves
Series: I’m With You in Rockland [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1865728
Comments: 24
Kudos: 193





	who jumped off the brooklyn bridge (this actually happened) and walked away unknown

**Author's Note:**

> sup fam it is two am and i am very tired. last night i was like im going to bed early! shit happens. that was a lie. im gonna post this and pass out. honestly tho might edit the last few paragraphs later but i wanted to get this out there. 
> 
> Info: ‘positive’ symptoms of schizophrenia ‘add.’ It includes hallucinations and delusions. Negative symptoms ‘take away.’ Symptoms include apathy/inability to show emotion. There’s also cognitive symptoms which sounds like is more mind/mood like depressive episodes and the like. I am not a dr and this may not be entirely accurate but it’s what i gathered from research! There’s ur fun fact of the day, good morning

The emergency room waiting area is cold.

Vanya has goosebumps. She’s still wearing one of Klaus’s old t-shirts. It‘s one he’d stolen from an ex-boyfriend of his, and so it’s even big on him. On her, it fits like a dress, nearly covers the shorts she has on underneath, and makes it seem like she’s wearing only the t-shirt. 

She thinks there’s probably a spare sweatshirt in her car, and maybe even a blanket. But she didn’t take her car. Diego drove them both, lights flashing the whole way. She doesn’t want to leave or ask him to take her home. She doesn’t even want to ask him to go get it for her. 

They’re not close, but she’s glad she’s not alone. 

Diego is sitting next to her, slouched back in the uncomfortable chairs, one foot flat against the chair next to him. He fidgets with a pen, dancing it across his fingers like the knives he plays with. The radio hanging from his shoulder is turned off, even though he’s still wearing the police uniform. She doesn’t know if he’s allowed to or if it’s something he’ll get in trouble for, later, but he said it was distracting and annoying. 

He’s nervous, like her, and somehow that hurts and angers and comforts her all at once. 

Neither of them have said anything about it. Vanya wants to speak up, tell him, _I didn’t know,_ but she can’t summon the energy. And she doesn’t want to start anything. 

She doesn’t know Diego’s thoughts about Klaus’s god-awful powers. Maybe he doesn’t even think they’re terrifying, like she does. Maybe the only reason he’s staying is because at least one of them isn’t ‘ordinary’ anymore. 

Vanya has to remind herself that he came, in the middle of the night, when she called. Before they knew. Maybe even if they didn’t know, he would still be here. 

At the very least, Diego hasn’t gotten up. He’s still here, sitting next to her. She can’t keep thinking about the what-if’s. Her mind is already crowded enough.

Klaus has been with the doctors and nurses for 45 minutes now. When they first got there, they let Diego and Vanya stay in the room with him as they forcibly strapped him down and took blood. His wrists, ankles, chest and hips were secured with thick Velcro straps. There were at least four security guards there, because Klaus kept fighting back. Vanya held his hand and tried to calm him down as he cried and begged them not to kill him.

But they got him strapped down, and put an IV port in his arm. His other arm—the one without the ugly, gaping cut. She doesn’t want to know how Klaus got that or what he tried to do to himself. She’s afraid she won’t like the answer. 

She’s afraid to think of what happened tonight, and if it happened before tonight, too. 

And she’s afraid to think of how much of what Klaus said was true. 

_Dad killed Ben. You have to stop. What if he finds out we know about our powers?_

Our powers, he’d said. Not my powers. Maybe he just assumed. Part of Vanya hopes he just assumed, or maybe it was a delusion.

She thinks, briefly, that maybe nothing is a delusion. But she remembers everything else her brother said—about the doctors, who are helping him now, about Diego, who’d given him CPR until they heard a pop and crack and they’d both screamed—and what Klaus had said last time, the way he’d acted and cried and threatened them. And how schizophrenia isn’t just hallucinations—the schizoaffective part of it gives him mood swings, and other negative symptoms aside from the positive ones. 

So he’s still Klaus. She thinks he still has schizophrenia, and he still has delusions even if he can apparently bring himself back from the dead and also—well, his hands glowed like blue fire, when he jerked back awake. And she knows Diego saw Ben sitting next to them, too, even if it was only just for a second. 

Hopefully Ben is still with Klaus, now. 

Hopefully Dad didn’t kill him. That has to be a delusion, she thinks. Why would Dad kill Ben? But she saw him there, kneeling next to her brother and looking just as terrified as she was. And Klaus has been talking about books, lately—she remembers Ben always used to love to read. 

But if Dad killed Ben, are the rest of them even safe? She doesn’t feel very safe. She feels shaken, and scared and worried. 

“Diego?” 

Diego stills next to her, catching the pen in between two fingers and folding it tightly in his fist. He doesn’t look at her. For a moment, she almost regrets saying anything, but then he relaxes and slouches back in his seat. He crosses his arms, and his shoulder brushes up against hers. 

He’s warm. She still feels so cold. 

“Yeah?”

Vanya looks down, avoiding him and the answer to the question she’s about to ask. In her lap, there’s a rough hospital tissue torn to shreds. She picks at the pieces, balls them up between her fingertips. 

“How did Ben die? No one—I mean, Dad never said. And neither did the newspapers.”

Diego shifts again. “I don’t know,” he says. His voice is rough. He sounds hurt, and angry. They were always close, growing up. Like her and Klaus. 

Vanya can’t imagine how he felt, afterwards. She remembers him being angry, at the funeral. At the time, it was annoying. But she thinks she would be angry, too, 

“Do you think—?” She cuts herself off. Her throat is thick and she feels nauseous. But she doesn’t have to finish her sentence. 

They’re probably both wondering the same thing.

“I don’t know,” Diego says, again. He glances over at her and glowers. Vanya shivers and looks away again. She tries to focus on the mismatched tile floors instead. “But I’m going to find out. And if he did, or if he tries anything now—I’m going to kill him.”

Vanya bites her lip. Her eyes feel too hot and she’s starting to get a headache just behind her eyes. She’s tired of crying. She folds her legs up on the chair, pulls the too big t-shirt over her knees. 

_What if he finds out we know about our powers?_

“Dad lied to us,” she whispers, and now she’s crying again and she shouldn’t be. She doesn’t want to feel hurt that her father would do this, because he’s done worse and she doesn’t think she even loves him, sometimes—but she does, and she can’t help it and it still aches. “Why would he do that? Do you think I—what if I do? What if it’s awful or dangerous and he _had_ to—“

“Dad is an asshole, Vanya,” Diego says, through clenched teeth. Vanya doesn’t want to look at him. She closes her eyes. “He named us Two and Seven. And if you do have powers and if it’s dangerous, so what? Ben’s were awful. It looks like Klaus’s fucking suck, too.” 

Vanya takes a shaky breath. She wipes at her eyes. Her head hurts. 

“But you know what? Ben’s powers were useful. And that’s all that Dad cares about. We were never kids.”

_We were never kids._

Diego huffs. He stands up, tosses the pen at the chair across the isle from them. 

“I’m getting coffee,” he says. Then he glances down at himself, shrugs the radio from his shoulder. “And I’m going to change. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes tops.”

Vanya takes another shaky breath. He’s not leaving. He is, but he’s coming back. 

“Okay,” she says, nodding. She forces herself to relax. “Wait—Diego.”

He pauses, takes a step back towards her and raises his eyebrows.

“Can you—” She sniffs, wipes at her eyes again and sighs at herself. It’s stupid. She probably doesn’t even need—

“Yeah?”

Vanya takes a breath. Ask. “Could you just—could you bring me a sweatshirt? And . . . maybe some pants. And ibuprofen.” 

He scowls at her. But she doesn’t think he’s angry at her, because he nods and mutters, “Should’ve asked earlier.”

It almost makes her laugh. Instead it makes her cry more and she doesn’t even know why. 

“Thank you.”

Diego rolls his eyes. “Don’t mention it.”

He turns and walks away. Vanya buries her face in her knees and lets herself cry. 

**Author's Note:**

> klaus: you’re a positive symptom, ben  
> ben, touched and confused: thank you? 
> 
> Anyways, diego is TRYING you guys. They’re both struggling. i love them so much 
> 
> can’t believe i got this out there tbh this was a tough one to write
> 
> and i love you too. thank u and goodnight xoxo


End file.
